San Manuel Casino’s upcoming pairing dinner doesn’t include a buttery chardonnay or a bold cabernet sauvignon, but rather craft cocktails.

Similar to a wine pairing dinner where each course is accompanied by a different varietal, the mixologist dinner — happening Friday, July 13, at The Pines Steakhouse — features a cocktail curated by the Highland casino’s mixologists to accompany each dish.

“I see the cocktail pairings a reverse of the wine pairing dinners,” said Jerrold Brooks, executive chef at San Manuel Casino. “With the wine pairings I need to see the wines first and then build the menu, where with cocktail pairings I create the menu first and give that to the mixologists to create the drinks.”

At the dinner, a table will be set up where drinks are prepared, giving attendees an opportunity to see the cocktail making process and interact with the mixologists.

“When we come up with menus for spirits or cocktail tastings and pairings, I often think about trendy cocktails that are light and fruity,” Brooks said. “If you look at the menu you will see a lot of fruit and citrus flavors and no heavy dishes. Instead you see fish and soft shell crab.”

When the cocktails are being created, Joey Gottesman, a mixologist at the casino, said he is careful not to whip up drinks that will overwhelm the food or the palate.

One of the drinks is the Surf-n-Turf which features Jack Daniels San Manuel Single Barrel Select.

According to another one of San Manuel’s mixologists, Chris Rosano, whiskey distilleries do a single barrel selection process for businesses to select their own barrel, and then the distilleries bottle it.

Although upcoming dinner pairings include wine and other spirits such as cognac and scotch, another mixologist pairing won’t take place until 2019.

The first course is butter-poached Pacific prawn alongside an Elderflower Bouquet cocktail, featuring St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur and Campari.

Next up is a quinoa salad with roasted sunflower seeds, mandarin oranges, berries and watermelon vinaigrette paired with the Pinky Out cocktail, made with Ketel One Botanical Cucumber & Mint, Antica Carpano Dry vermouth, fresh lime and Peychaud’s Bitters.

Finish off the pairing with raspberry-lemon coconut cheesecake and port guava crème anglaise and the Fashionably Late cocktail, which is made with Zaya 12 Year Reserva rum, cold brew decaf coffee and vanilla crème whip.

Mixologist dinner

When: 6 p.m. Friday, July 13

Where: The Pines Steakhouse at San Manuel Casino, 777 San Manuel Blvd., Highland

Stephanie Schulte has covered everything from travel, crime, food and entertainment since 2006. Her first assignment was writing a feature story on Ray 'Boom Boom' Mancini for Amy Blanc Elementary School in Northern California and she never looked back. Schulte enjoys playing piano (not very good), hiking, hanging with her family and friends and watching Three's Company re-runs.